Blizzard may not have offered any details yesterday in their cancellation announcement, however this seem to have triggered quite the news surge. Never thought I'd have the chance to do an actual news round-up for Titan, on a non-Blizzcon day!

For a quick summary on the official cancellation announcement, in video form, see just below (or if you like walls of text, see my previous article). However the meaty parts come right after this clip, starting with an actually believable and consistent leak!

Here's What Titan Actually Was [Kotaku seems to have multiple sources confirming some of Titan's main features, which makes this one of the most trustworthy "leaks" we ever had on the game] - Kotaku

For starters, according to three people I spoke with, it would have taken place on a near-future version of Earth, in a science-fiction depiction of the world where mankind has successfully fought off an alien invasion. Players would join one of three factions waging a cold war over control of the planet, and zones planned for the game ranged from the west coast of the United States to Europe, South America, and Australia, according to a source. Blizzard's plan was to make the game world huge, and to keep adding areas with expansions in the years after launch.

The main concept was this: you, the player, would maintain a mundane job—butchering, engineering, entrepreneurship—during the day, while waging clandestine warfare against opposing factions at night (or between work hours).

Players would be able to select from classes with names like Reaper, Jumper, Titan, Ranger, and Juggernaut, each of which had its own special combat abilities and items, according to a source. Jumpers, for example, would be agile scouts with a teleport ability and the ability to quickly leap in and out of combat. Titans were tanks, while Rangers were snipers with cloaking and other abilities (think Nova from StarCraft II and the ill-fated StarCraft Ghost).

All of the people who described the game to me made a lot of Team Fortress comparisons both in terms of aesthetics and gameplay. ... Your perspective would switch between first- and third-person based on whether you were heading into combat or hanging out in a city,

Not only would players have been able to run their own businesses and shops, according to one source, they could maintain relationships with non-player customers and retail staff, even starting families thanks to a complicated AI system that Blizzard hoped to implement. (One source told me that Blizzard had hired a number of former Maxis staff who worked on The Sims in order to help put all this together.)

The goal, according to one person who worked on the game, was to construct cities that felt like living worlds, full of businesses, shops, and NPCs with schedules and behaviors based on what was happening at any given time.

It's really interesting stuff and I can definitely see how development on this could have gotten out of hand. It's no joke trying to build a realistic Sims-like AI scaled to MMO size, meant to cover an entire city / society. You're also forced to make everything massive and detailed when you go for the option of using real-life Earth as the game world.

What's funny about this info is that it confirms a leak that appeared all the way back in 2010, on a french website. It was one of the first leaks regarding Titan and it turns out it was the most accurate one as well. I talked about it in one of the first articles of this website, if you're interested in the english version.

There's also a bit of optimistic news at the end:

One person connected to Blizzard told me that "a good handful" of the Titan team is actually still intact, despite yesterday's news that the game has been cancelled.

"They changed the code-name after that reboot," said that person. "So the project that was 'Titan' did die last year."

I'd definitely recommend to take this with more than a grain of salt, as just yesterday Mike Morhaime clearly mentioned that at the moment they are not looking into developing MMOs. So whatever some of the ex-Titan team members are working on, it's probably highly edited and simplified.

Titan cancellation cost Blizzard $50m or more [various estimations made by analysts regarding the development cost of Titan. $50M seems to be the lowest number, with another bidding up to $140M] - Gameindustry.biz

"Development costs for Titan may have amounted to tens of millions, perhaps $50 million or more. This is not an unusual event, however. Blizzard has cancelled several games in various stages of development in the past. Costs for unreleased games can be significant, but launching substandard games can harm the reputation of a successful publisher such as Blizzard. Expenses for development can be considered R&D, and benefits can include invaluable training, IP and technology that can be applied to other games," explained independent analyst Billy Pidgeon.

"They realized that unless a big MMO is out-of-this-world unbelievable it won't work in today's market where it competes against a bunch of low cost options. If they felt that it just wasn't getting to that point it makes sense to cut your losses," he noted.

I don't necessarily agree with the second quote, as Titan seems to have been ideal for being a F2P game with endless possibilities for vanity items, thus making it very accessible for low-budget players. Hell, I would have been shocked if they didn't introduce a player-made workshop in the game, where players could craft their own clothes / furniture / jewelry and sell it for real cash, with Blizzard taking a cut.

Titan is Dead. Long Live Prometheus! [Seems like one of the several projects in progress in Blizzard's laboratories right now is code-named Prometheus] - MMO-Champion

However, it doesn't mean that the development team is no longer working on something. Multiple sources who seem to point towards a new unannounced project from Blizzard that would be codenamed Prometheus and could be another project built around a new license for Blizzard.

Keep in mind that this last bit is very much unofficial and unconfirmed.

This could very easily be the project that Kotaku mentions part of the Titan team switched to. It's hard and silly to draw any conclusions from the internal name, so I'll stop speculation here, however there's definitely something to it.

The original "rethinking" delay occurred because what had been developed was alarmingly similar to Destiny in theme and aesthetic. I'm guessing that Blizz tried to salvage it, but too much would have to be rebuilt to make it seem significantly different from Bungie's product (same parent company probably doesn't help).

We saw a very early build of it in 2010 and it did have some cool hooks, but that becomes "something I saw personally" and not "something someone told me after I left," so there's that old NDA again.

This seems to partially match with what we now know from Kotaku, especially the part about a future Earth which was invaded by aliens. The general idea behind the combat seems to also be approximately the same.

If we're to believe these new bites of info, then it's actually shocking that such a huge mix-up can happen at such a high level. Assuming the "rethinking" mentioned here is the one from 2013, then it means that they noticed the huge overlap between the 2 games only when one was a year away from launch and the other around halfway through. While Bungie may not be directly connected with Blizzard, Activision is with both, so they really should have avoided this conflict much earlier. Who know, we may still have Titan if that had happened...

================================

Will update the article with anything else that pops up, however meanwhile I'm extremely curious to hear what you think about Titan and its planned features. As far as I'm concerned: too ambitious? Maybe; not fun? Are you kiddin' me?! I would have played it like mad.

We all knew it (at least those that had watched Titan more closely) however it is finally official: Titan is no more. Rest in Peace big guy. We never really knew you, but you will be missed!

"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."
Chris Metzen, Blizzard's senior vice president of story and franchise development, called the decision to cancel Titan "excruciating."

So, let's see what we've learned from this official announcement, made via Polygon. *goes through the interview for the 10th time* As it turns out, quite nothing!

We did get a confirmation that Blizzard is not currently involved in the development of any MMOs, as shown in the below quote, however this was also something highly speculated and basically taken as a given by many of us.

"I wouldn't say no to ever doing an MMO again," Morhaime said. "But I can say that right now, that's not where we want to be spending our time."

It's a pretty funny quote, considering it is coming from a company that has as its main income source an MMO which will hopefully be supported by the company indefinitely, according to Chris Metzen in this same interview. This apparent contradiction I think tells us more than the entire interview.

"We didn't find the fun," Morhaime continued. "We didn't find the passion. We talked about how we put it through a reevaluation period, and actually, what we reevaluated is whether that's the game we really wanted to be making. The answer is no."

First of all let's get the obvious out of the way. A company as big as Blizzard, sewn together to an even bigger corporation, when deciding the fate of a project does not actually take into consideration if they're having fun building it or if it's what each developer / designer wants to make, or if it's something they can get passionate about. These are just buzzwords specific to the entertainment industry, used just to make it easier to explain financial and strategic decisions to the general public. The only questions that do matter are "Will it sell?", "Will it last long-term?" "How risky it is?" and other similarly practical issues.

I'm not saying this as some kind of blame, just in order to make things clearer. All developers / designers are people (doh) with families and loans and I guarantee you that the project they'll get most passionate about is the one they believe it will be most successful. It matters very little if it's an MMO or not. This applies even more to the higher up people, such as Chris Metzen and Mike Morhaime. MM would like nothing more for Blizzard to be considered THE MMO company if that would mean pulling off a new World of Warcraft, in terms of success and revenue.

"Are we the MMORPG company?" he added later, in conclusion to that line of questioning.
Morhaime answered that last rhetorical question quite simply: "We don't want to identify ourselves with a particular genre. We just want to make great games every time."

So why not a second MMO? Why not Titan?

The obvious answer would be that all big game developers are running away from the MMO genre, due to its stained reputation, the high initial investment needed and the risk factor. We got this impression even from inside Activision, as Bungie's marketing department did its best to label as not an MMO a game which was obviously an MMO. Even if it wasn't, they would have been happy to let it be called that way if they thought it would be advantageous. They obviously didn't think this.

While likely a major part in Blizzard's decision to cancel Titan, it cannot be the only part. You do not cancel an ongoing project just because it's an MMO, no matter how risky the genre is considered these days for major developers.

I would thus like to suggest the missing piece, namely that Blizzard has become too big to make big projects. This I believe is true in a couple of ways.

Activision Blizzard has always been defined as a company that bases its success on extremely high revenue from very

few projects. Blizzard especially, since before the launch of Diablo 3, they were basically making money only from World of Warcraft. An immense risk for any company.

Alarm bells went off at both Activision and Blizzard to diversify their income sources. I can't speak for Activision, however this has become more than obvious with Blizzard. World of Warcraft was morphed to be able to bring money even if somehow they were forced to lose the subscription, thus minimising its risk value. Old franchises were reborn (SC2 / D3) and new, smaller ones were created (HotS, HS). We also suspect of at least 2 projects in the works, some close to release. This is a huge change for the company. I remember pretty much everyone, from players to press, being shocked at Blizzard launching a "small" game as Hearthstone. Well, get ready for 2,3,4 more just as "small" in the near future!

In the process of becoming huge, Blizzard lost its developing discipline. When working at a very large project, the easiest thing to happen is to get absolutely lost in its details, obsesses over the smallest things and be annoyed this still-in-progress project is not already perfect. Have a look at the below quotes and tell me this isn't what happened with Titan.

We were losing perspective and getting lost in the weeds a little. We had to allow ourselves to take that step back and reassess why the hell we were doing that thing in the first place."

We were trying to do the right thing and build the right, smart product, and keep it all moving...

And there's times where they just drive each other batshit crazy. For as good as they are and the experience they have, sometimes you just don't find it, and you've got to get out of the damn studio and go have a beer and regroup.

I refuse to believe that a project which Blizzard, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, "set out to make the most ambitious thing that you could possibly imagine", was not something we would have found fun and played the crap out of. Nothing short of showing me the game itself *nudge nudge* will convince me otherwise.

I am certain that the project was not flawed or too ambitious by itself, more than any game is in pre-pre-alpha. It was however too big and too ambitious as a game developed by Blizzard. If we take a look at the company's history, this should become obvious. Every project has gone through delays and there haven't been any really major projects since, well, since World of Warcraft.

"But Mynsc, surely you are forgetting Diablo 3!" You mean the game that suffered endless delays and was launched half-complete? Furthermore, for Diablo 3 Blizzard had a very clear pattern to follow, that of Diablo 2. It was making a sequel, not a brand new game. Same with Starcraft 2, which is virtually identical with the original Starcraft, except 10 years into the future.

Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone also do not get close, even when counted together, to the magnitude of Project Titan, from a development point of view.

In other words, Blizzard is a huge company that since 2004 has not launched any truly major and new projects. No matter how you look at it, it is not a company that was suited to complete a very large project such as Titan. Having deep pockets is useful for such projects only if you have an inside culture that's disciplined and organised enough to be able to use them.

This may very well be by choice (knowingly or not), as the company has always prided itself in its ability to ignore deadlines. And we may very well be looking at the company embracing this and thus focusing on smaller projects. Less risk, more income sources, a more efficient development model. Hell, if Hearthstone is of any relevance, probably even more fun games! This may very well be a winning bet for them.

"Damage the relationship. Smash the trust."

However the transition period may be harder for us, the players, than for Blizzard. I find it truly sad, at a personal level (not criticising the company in any way), that I know to not expect any major AAA games from Blizzard, one of the biggest gaming companies and definitely one of my favorite ones. I love Hearthstone, I play it almost daily and I spend money on it, however it will never be Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo. Well, it technically is Warcraft, but you hopefully get my meaning.

What was Titan?

What I find even sadder is that we are heading towards never knowing what Titan was. An incredibly ambitious project, the MMO that was to replace World of Warcraft, the game too big to exist. However we do not have a single non-metaphorical detail regarding it.

And now that it is past the point of official cancellation, we're at risk of never really finding out. Sure, we may assume some of the features and worlds in Blizzard's next games have been taken from Titan, but will we ever know this for certain?

At this point I'm half-expecting to only find out 10 years from now, in a Blizzard-made documentary for a 20 year anniversary or something of the sorts.

I do not feel entitled to private info from a company, however I do think it would have been nice and awesome for them to include in this announcement a screenshot or at least a sentence of concrete actual info regarding Titan. Although it's true that this would have had the opposite effect of what they hoped to achieve with this, namely to make people forget about Titan and make room for new games, such as Overwatch.

]]>Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:43:58 +0000cfecdb276f634854f3ef915e2e980c31Titan, Overwatch, New Unannounced Game - Making Sense of Them Allhttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/titan-overwatch-new-unannounced-game-making-sense-of-them-all-r88

Last updated - 25.04.2014

It is very hard to solve the puzzle created from Blizzard's current unannounced project(s), however this is exactly what this article will be attempting. Please keep in mind that it is meant to be an ongoing report, as such it may get updated if we stumble upon new info or anyone has any new details to share, that have not been included in the initial version.

So it's clear that the project has been reset and most likely given a new codename: Pandora, Prometheus, Rhea, Atlas, Hyperion or whichever other Saturn moons Blizzard decided to pick next. Any would be fitting, since Titan is by far the biggest one, and the impression is that they are now aiming for something smaller, more sustainable and that can actually be finished within our life-time.

Considering all this, it seems that it's time to leave Titan behind and focus on the new projects that have been popping up. One of them is most likely the spiritual successor of Titan, in the sense that it would be a huge pointless waste to discard all the lore and video / audio assets that have been created in the last few years for Titan. This most likely applies to a good chunk of the engine / gameplay code as well.

So far, the below two candidates have lined up for this position.

Overwatch

It could be a new The Dark Below farse, or it could be the real deal. The fact that the application was filled on April 1st (April 2nd in EU) does not increase its odds of being real, however until it disappears, it needs to be taken into account. The trademark was been filed twice in the US (for separate categories) and once in the EU, so considering there is a fee associated with this process, someone would have to be wasting several hundred dollars to make a joke that has already been made recently. I would not want to be that guy's financial counselor. Or maybe I would.

The details of the trademark do not offer any spectacular reveals. It is included in the same standard categories as most of Blizzard's prior titles and as of now is still under examination.

The only additional info at the moment we can extract is from the name itself. Looking on Wikipedia, the term is defined as below:

In modern warfare, overwatch is the state of one small unit or military vehicle supporting another unit, while they are executing fire and movement tactics. An overwatching, or supporting unit has taken a position where it can observe the terrain ahead, especially likely enemy positions. This allows it to provide effective covering fire for advancing friendly units. The term overwatch originates in U.S. military doctrine.

It is incredibly hard not to think of some kind of modern co-op shooter when reading this.

Below I've highlighted some of the more interesting lines from within the job posts currently active. Please keep in mind that these do not necessarily make a direct reference to the game itself and they are mostly guidelines for the requirements or responsibilities of the job itself.

Some things stand out of course, such as the numerous references towards replayable levels, in a multi-player setting and also the fact that this team is intended to be a small and nimble one, similar to Hearthstone's. It's hard to believe it will really be that small, especially since the game seems much more complex, however this can hint at the fact that many of the assets for it are being taken from Titan.

The other piece of info we have on this new unannounced project is that Michael Booth is its Game Director:

Who is Michael Booth you ask? Good question! Turns out he is the founder of a company called Turtle Rock Studios, which before being bought by Valve, created Left 4 Dead and contributed to Counter-Strike: Condition Zero.

Update #1 - It's also worth keeping in mind that this job section may include postings form multiple unannounced projects. It would be the natural thing to do if they have multiple new games under development. Something that is probable, considering small hints such as the one below (projects):

At the moment, this is the extent of the non-speculative information we have on Blizzard's new project(s).

It's clear that both the Overwatch name and at least some of the Unannounced Title's open jobs and director hint towards a new online, co-op shooter. This also makes the chance that they are the same project quite high. And in order to stick to the Occam's Razor's fewer assumptions rule, it's also safer to consider Overwatch the successor of Titan. Especially since Titan had also been rumored to be a FPS at one point.

This may not be the case though and unfortunately, as always when it comes to Blizzard's unannounced projects, no clear conclusions can be drawn. However do keep an eye on this article, as we will be doing our best to update it with new info! If you have any, please leave it in the comments or contact me directly through email or PM.

First day, first mention. Nothing big, however it is good to know that Titan is still in the works, even in whatever new form it is. New for Blizzard of course, since it can't be new to us since we never met the old one, unfortunately. Maybe someday, at another Blizzcon, they'll tell us what they initially had planned.

Anyway, here's Mike Morhaime talking a bit about Titan. Hopefully more to come, although it's clear they don't have any plans to really talk about the game at this year's event.

Update: With Blizzcon now over, It seems that this was the only Titan update they planned on giving and as such got it out of the way quickly, right from the start, in order for everyone to focus on their 5 other games for the rest of the event. Can't really argue with the logic, since it's obvious they didn't have anything real to share about the game.

From Mike Morhaime's few words we can draw the conclusion that they do not fully support the Titan codename any more, as he made sure to avoid it and only refer to the game as their "Unannounced Project". They're also avoiding the "MMO" term as well.

Hard to say what this means, however at this point I think it's safe to say that the new "Unannounced Game Title" section on their Jobs Directory page is connected with Titan, since there was no other project hinted at Blizzcon and the name of the section fits with their new naming policy.

Jeffrey Kaplan is still MIA unfortunately, as such I think it's also safe to presume that he is still in charge of Titan The Unannounced Project. That's good news I guess, although I'm sure we were all really hoping to hear a status update on his situation at Blizzard and what has he been working on.

This clearly was not the year of Titan, however if this new direction they've taken proves more sustainable, hopefully starting with next year's Blizzcon Titan will not be the black sheep of the Blizzard family any more and the Blizzard folks will start to mention it more openly. The reset seems to have indeed made serious changes to the project, however I'm sure that most of the foundation was kept, as such this new optimised direction should bring it to a marketable state soon enough. I mean, right?

Update #2: Not exactly a Titan mention, however during an interview with Gamespot @ Blizzcon, Blizzard COO Paul Sams addressed the company's availability to launch new franchises. Worth a listen, as it also addresses Blizzard's relation with consoles and the Warcraft movie. New franchises part starts at approximately 5:25.

With Blizzcon less than a month way, I think it's the perfect moment to assess Titan's chances of making an appearance. I'll start by taking a look at two of the major hints we have related to this.

First of all, it's important to revisit the last Blizzcon, from two years ago, and see what happened then. The "show" actually started a month before the convention, as news sites started speculating that we'll see an official announcement during Blizzcon. At that point, Bashiok decided to step in and mention that no, there won't be any Titan unveiling, which in the end proved to be true.

The second factor that might play an important role in how much air-time Titan receives is the amount of space that needs to be reserved for the already announced games. And looking at this, it's probably going to be the busiest Blizzcon in history.

Two of the major three franchises have expansions to show-off (Diablo and World of Wacraft). And that's not to say Starcraft 2 won't make an appearance, as there is a "small" tournament called the WCS Global Finals which will take place throughout the entire weekend.

However, there is even more! I wouldn't be surprised if HearthStone will have its official launch during Blizzcon or at least having a date announced for it. Regardless of this, since the game is already hugely popular, everyone will want to ask questions about it and I'm sure the Blizzard folks have already put time aside in order to answer them.

And if this was not already enough, the mysterious Blizzard All-Stars is screaming to get out (or rather we're screaming for it to come out) and even by Blizzard time, its announcement is way overdue. With the "Heroes of the Storm" trademark confirmed, it's really looking like the info gates will finally be blown open on this project.

These two factors considered and also adding to the equation the elephant in the room, unfortunately the chances are not good for Titan to make a noteworthy appearance at this year's Blizzcon. The pre-show period is already much more calm than two years ago. Nobody is even bothering to ask if Titan will be there as the answer is pretty clear in most people's minds. For all we know, the game is actually in a less advanced state than two years ago, "thanks" to the recent reset.

That being said, looking at the optimistic side as well, there are hints that development on the project might have restarted. Blizzard also "owes" us a better explanation as to what exactly happened to the project and when we'll hear about it again. It's in their best interest I believe to keep Titan on everyone's radar, as it adds a certain degree of hope and excitement in relation to the company's future, so they should be looking to clear the surrounding waters a bit.

With the analysis out of the way (let me know in the comments if you have something else to add), it's time we jump to the fun part! Predictions!

Below you can find mine. If you have any others to add or don't agree with the chances, let me know in the comments and I'll input yours in as well. It's not a full-on contest, however it will be pretty fun to see how wrong we were after Blizzcon passes!

Also guys, TF will be represented at Blizzcon, thanks to some of our awesome members that managed to snag tickets: Eremite, jonnyshiz, Sarnakyle (and special "guest" appearances from sayaf and Velocity). They've been kind (and awesome) enough to put themselves at your disposal so do let them know if you have any requests in mind. They don't even have to be remotely reasonable! If not, wish them a splendid weekend and tell them how much you envy them!

A new jobs section has recently appeared on Blizzard's website and it's teasingly called Unannounced Game Title. It currently holds 6 job entries, 5 of them for various visual artist positions. This comes just a bit over one month after the Next Gen MMO section was completely removed, probably due to the Titan reset that was announced in May. Here are a few fragments from the freshly added job postings:

The ideal candidate has experience modeling and texturing character assets in a stylized universe. A solid grasp of form, color, and light for both 2D and 3D art assets is essential. The 3D character artist must also have experience working with a diverse range of characters, creatures, weapons, and equipment both organic and mechanical in nature.

This individual will lead the development of server architecture and implementation of an exciting new Blizzard game and will lead a group of programmers to accomplish various server programming tasks.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience working with 3D packages, in-game FX systems to create a wide range of VFX (fire, smoke, explosions, etc.), as well as a general understanding of good game play communication.

As is usual the case with such black box observations, this new development raises more questions than it answers.

Is this new section referring to Titan? The title fits, because Blizzard has made it a point recently to note that the game was never officially announced. This would mean that the project is back on track, but the way the title has been reworded might also suggest that it suffered drastic changes. Is it still an MMO? Is this new "Titan" maybe just using assets and tech but going in a whole different direction gameplay wise?

What if it's not Project Titan at all? It's definitely not HS (already announced), All-Stars (shares a section with SC2 on the jobs page) or any of their other 3 big franchises. So does this mean Blizzard is engaged in a new major project? And where does that leave Titan?

There are no certainties, except that Blizzard is indeed cooking something new, whether it's Titan, a derivative of Titan or something completely unknown.

We're in the process of selecting a new direction for Project Titan and re-envisioning what we want the game to be. And while we can't talk about the details yet, it is unlikely to be a subscription based MMORPG.

I also want to reiterate that there has been not been an official announced or projected release date. What I can say is that the commitment to quality has always been at the core of Blizzard values and we've gone through this type of iterative development process several times in the past on our way to creating genre-defining games.

As we continue our assessment, we have shifted some of the resources from the team to our other franchises including WoW and Blizzard All-Stars which we believe will add immense value to those projects.

Not a very clear statement, especially since it was pre-written. Will it be a subscription-less MMORPG, or will it also be a different type of game all-together? Unless I'm missing something, the way he worded the phrase leaves room for debate.

Even with the ambiguity of the statement, this does help clear a bit the exact reason(s) for the recent reset. We had already considered that it was a pause designed to give them time to look into different business models (like F2P) and / or different game-play options, and Mike Morhaime's short speech definitely adds strength to these two options.

Update:Looks like in the end, Activision Blizzard managed to avoid the special dividend Vivendi had planned to issue and bought itself back from the holding giant[PDF], becoming an independent company. They did not avoid debt however, as this self-purchase was founded with $1.2 billion cash on hand and $4.6 billion debt proceeds. As mentioned below though, they still have at least $3 billion cash in their coffers, that they chose not to use for this transaction. So in the end, most of the below conclusions do stand, from a financial point of view at least, although being a "free" company is definitely a big win for the gaming giant and something that's well worth the huge investment.

Vivendi, a humongous holding company (which basically means it produces nothing, just owns and manages shares of other companies), has reached the conclusion that having $17.3 billion in debt is not a very good thing. They're in danger of having their credit rating downgraded, their stock keeps going down and are exposed to other nasty stuff that can result from such a high debt. So they're doing their best to reduce it. They call it slimming down and focusing on their media portfolio. As a result, any company that does not fit this title is being traded off.

They're already mostly done with selling their 53% stake in Maroco Telecom for $5.5 billion and it's rumored that the next step is doing the same with the shares of SFR, a telecom giant just as big, with the difference that Vivendi fully owns it. As we found out about a year ago, Activision Blizzard was also put on sale. Unfortunately for them, and apparently for the gaming giant as well, nobody was interested enough to pay the required price. So they're switching to plan B, namely siphoning the funds from ActiBlizz through a special dividend.

When the pair went under Vivendi's hold, they had a deal in place preventing the parent company of doing such special cash requests without the approval of the other board members. The deal has expired just this month, and since Vivendi holds 63% of the controlling shares, they now have the power to do such a cash grab. And they definitely are not shy about it, with things apparently being in motion already.

Word is they've settled on a $3 billion dividend, which would give Vivendi $2 billion in cash, considering they hold about 2/3 of the stock. Activision Blizzard has that and more saved up, $4.6 billion to be more precise. The problem is that only about $1.6 billion of that sum is inside the US, the rest being neatly deposited in various off-shore accounts. This means that they can't use those money unless they want them introduced into the US system, which would mean certain tax obligations that they've been trying to avoid. So to pay a $3 billion dividend, they will probably opt to borrow at least $1.4 billion, hence giving the company something that it has done its best to avoid until now: debt.

How Will it Affect the Company and Implicitly Project Titan?
I think there are two main factors to consider here.

First of all, things are not as dire as we might think, as I see it anyway. All companies pay such dividends at some point in time and with the amount of cash saved up, you could say that ActiBlizz is in a decent spot to do such a thing. They might've hoped to be able to use these savings + debt to buy themselves back from under Vivendi, but I guess that and other plans will have to be put on hold.

Also, as it's obvious from comparing the numbers, the debt is in a way "fake", because all in all they have more money saved up than what they need to pay to their share-holders, just that it's distributed in other regions than US.

Also worth considering is that this was reserve money. Cash saved up for such special events, like paying dividends, buying something or extremely "rainy days". Losing a chunk of this shouldn't affect day-today operations or mid-term plans, not right now at least.

And this leads me to the second factor. I think the question "how will this affect Titan?" is at the wrong verb time. It should be "How has this affected Titan?" since I'm sure this move from Vivendi was not a surprise for the ActiBlizz management. They knew when the deal that was protecting them would expire, they knew of Vivendi's intent to get rid of its debt for at least a few years, so they had plenty of time to prepare. Sure, they probably also tried to avoid it (mainly through a buy-back), but at the same time if they had any "adjustments" to implement they probably already put them in place.

I'm definitely not saying that Titan's "reset" was Blizzard getting the memo from above, but if something like that would happen, it probably already did.

The Bottom Line
I think that if things continue to go well for the gaming giant, this move from Vivendi will have no impact whatsoever on any of its current and future projects, including Titan. The main change is that the company is now a bit more exposed. A streak of weaker than expected launches or a problem in the market could place them in trouble faster than before. So investing in new franchises should still be on top of their priority list, especially since they need to reflect confidence and potential after taking this hit (and dealing with a shrinking WoW), just that they'll need to be a bit more careful to not screw up.

And looking just at Blizzard, they might be a bit more exposed than Activision just because of the way they "cook" their games. If things go bad in the future, financially speaking, Blizzard will have to make some drastic changes to its process, with the expected result of streamlining it and eliminating the so called "iterations" that throw back the planned release dates by years.

Well it's been a while since I've heard anything, but I will say that if it goes how they were explaining it to us during our Show & Tells, then it's going to be pretty fucking badass, and may even kill, or slightly hinder WoW. It's that sweet of an idea. Let's just hope they don't f**k it up. >_>

No we don't get told everything that goes on because there are bad seeds out there, but that goes for all departments. But we did get so see designs, storyboards, character classes, and a general overview of what it's hopefully going to be.

No clue what they plan on doing. That shit isn't going to be out for like 10 years, my guess is.

Not much to comment on, except it's of course promises and predictions we've heard before. Considering he says it's been a while since he heard anything specific about the project, his 10 years prediction shouldn't really account for much, although recent news does favor it unfortunately.

This in a way provides fuel to the argument that Blizzard tried a bit too much with Titan and in the end, out of tech and/or design reasons it didn't fully pan out, so they had to rethink some of the game's features. Probably something along these lines.

Small Update

He has deleted all his messages and also his reddit account, approximately one day after doing the AMA. No reason was given.

Looks like the rumor mill is churning again, and this time the news is not good. According to Venture Beat, "a source familiar with the matter" has informed them that development on Titan has been slowed down severely, with 70 of the 100+ developers working on the title being reassigned to Blizzard's other projects. The ones that are left will start over on Titan, trying to take the game on a different path. As such, the soonest expected release is now 2016. This is of course still just unconfirmed info, and until Blizzard comments on this it should be treated as such.

We've always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We've come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game. We're using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven't announced any dates for the MMO.

Update #4 - short thoughts related to this

Considering how "slow-cooked" this project has been, for such a long time too, it's incredibly surprising that it didn't manage to avoid a major revamp. Even if we're of course talking about Blizzard here.

It's not good news, that's for sure. Yes, it's good that Blizzard has decided to sacrifice its timeline and do a major revision, but this also means that something important was not right and we have no guarantee that extra time will help, although it is of course the correct start.

The Project is now 6-7 years old and it will be close to 10 years in 2016. Extremely long and intense development is one of the issues that plague MMOs, and it does not help when a meticulous company like Blizzard tackles a supposedly huge project like Titan. A clear and immovable production schedule is absolutely required in this case, or else each time they'll be close to release, they'll realize a new revision is required, to bring it up to speed with modern tech and trends.

It's fair to assume that most of those reassigned are writers and visual artists. Titan has benefited from a strong, numerous and constantly growing art team in the last couple of years, so it should be in a good state when it comes to these assets. While the engineers and designers are figuring out and implementing the needed changes, the art team is being used for different projects that are maybe lacking a bit in this department.

This also resets most of what we knew, or thought we knew, about the game. We can't assess the nature or the size of the changes, so basically pretty much everything we have is automatically in doubt. Good thing we didn't have much!

Last and probably least, I don't want to penalize Rob Pardo and others for actually giving us teasers and stuff over the last few years, but one of the first things I remembered when I heard the news was the below tweet. Everything seemed so perfect a year ago, with Titan having a playable, fun build. What changed?

We always had a solid idea that "Titan" is just the internal codename for Blizzard's new MMO (like "Project Hydra" was for Diablo 3), and I guess this sets it in stone. Respawn Entertainment describes itself as an "independent video game development studio" that's "currently working on its first title," so there isn't any apparent connection with Blizzard.

And since we're on the subject, I want to clarify one of the most often asked questions on TF's forums: yes, this website will change its name to fit with Project Titan's actual commercial name. As soon as I know it, I'll make the switch. Some "Titan" mentions will probably remain here and there, for nostalgia's sake if nothing else. These past two years, while a bit on the quiet side, have been nothing but awesome so I have no intention to completely erase them while advancing forward.

OK, here we go. I've been sitting on this info for more than a week, not only to do my absolute best to verify it, but also because I didn't want to publish the article before or during the April Fools craze. So let's begin!

Leak Validity
It's always hard to be sure about something like this, but I'm extremely confident about this one. The source is someone with firsthand info that I've personally talked with extensively and has provided solid info (names, photos, detailed description as to how and why he knows what he knows, edit: NOT photos of the game itself) to validate him/her self. There is always the chance that it's someone playing a silly prank, but this one would be a very elaborate one. I'm giving it a 95% chance to be true.

As always, what I'll report here are his/ hers conclusions of what (s)he's seen, so this can always deviate a bit from the truth, but not because of wrong intentions from either of us. Also, please don't draw any definitive conclusions about the game from this. It's a very rough sketch that might not even be entirely accurate. Disclaimers aside, let's get into the juicy stuff!

Game Universe

It's based on Earth's history, but also includes a high amount of fiction. It will have a "deep history", just as Warcraft and Starcraft.

They're intending to include many Warcraft elements into Titan's world. Mostly Easter Eggs, but can also extend to entire characters being ported into the new game, one way or another.

It's designed with eSports in mind. They will try to grow it into a successful eSport.

There will be "clan" housing. No details on player-housing.

Last but not least, the game will have an Auction House. Nothing conclusive about a Real-Money Auction House but it is possible. As an extra tidbit, Blizzard was also considering introducing a RMAH into WoW at one point, but apparently not anymore.

They were considering implementing easy in-game recording at one point, unsure of the state of this at the moment.

BLIZZCON 2013 - Titan Teaser, details on expansions for all other major franchises (SC2, D3, WoW). There will be other small Titan teasers at the event but nothing major. They don't want to show any game-play until they have a solid date for beta.

Speaking of which, current plan is to open Family & Friends testing in Q1 2014.

The game has a name already that has been changed multiple times over the course of the development process. Unknown unfortunately.

They're going full-out when it comes to the soundtrack. Each zone will have its own song, and the songs will vary vastly in type, rhythm. We've reported before that Jason Hayes has returned to Blizzard, so this is definitely not surprising.

That's about it. There are no mind blowing statements here, but I think the chances are very high that for the first time since we found out about Project Titan, we have a solid starting platform on which we can base our expectations and speculation.

Maybe even more than usual, I'm extremely curious to hear what you think about this!

25.02.2013: We've just launched Titanpedia.info, a brand new wiki for Titan! - check it out directly by clicking on its tab in the navigation bar above or read all the announcements first!

There's been a lot of speculation as to what exactly Blizzard's Project Blackstone is since the name was first discovered a couple of months ago. We considered many possibilities, but it seems none of them was close to the truth.

The only real content on it right now is a modified logo of the Terran faction. The rest of the website is password protected and attempting to guess the code too many times gives you an appropriate warning:

Please note: Attempting to access secure Dominion networks without proper authorization is considered a hostile act. Further incorrect access attempts will earn a commensurate response.

That's all we know so far, but I have to say I'm very intrigued, even if any possibility of a connection with Titan has completely evaporated. As a personal thought, my bet right now is on a pre-launch ARG (Alternate Reality Game). Stay tuned for updates!

Update #1: As DevilsD pointed out in the comments, in the source code of the page there's a weird and long code that apparently should have been removed before code deployment. I'm sure that some poor, overworked and under-paid Terran software engineer will pay with his life for this.

Update #4: The story seems to be set to evolve at a weekly rate, at least for now. I'm guessing that as we get closer to the launch of Heart of the Swarm, the pace will pick-up. Since this doesn't seem to be a Titan-related project, I won't continue to update this article, but you can follow the story on the forums, where TF member Templar is keeping a close eye on the event.

This is a bit off-topic for TitanFocus, but since I reported on the first sighting of this name, a follow-up is appropriate.

We parse through many rumors / "leaks" on the Titan Focus forums, ranging from some that are completely bonkers, to a few that actually make us wonder "what if". This next one went through most of the stages in the few days we've been discussing it and since it proved to be quite solid and big, we thought it would be time to make it more visible.

As with any rumor, please keep in mind that this may be very well be false info, even if the evidence we've dug up seems to suggest otherwise.

The following four quotes come from the NeoGAF forums and are made by a user there with the nickname alphaNoid. Over the last two - three years he has made many comments related to Project Titan. You can find all of them here, I'll just highlight the more interesting ones (although they're all worth reading for sure!)

I will end with this tidbit though, Blizzard has been on record saying that Titan would be a new IP. Its not, its a spin off of an existing franchise ... and they're playing into that to allude to a new IP.Its going to be what Blizzard fans want.

Nobody has dev kits? Thats 100% bullshit, considering my insider at Blizzard who is working on the Titan framework has had access to a near final "next Xbox" dev kit since November. He wont tell me the details, he can't and even eluding to the dev kit in general was a dog and pony show because he is under NDA personally signed. Next xbox dev kits are in the wild, whether or not they are final and the specs are another discussion but they are out there that I can say.

Summary + extra details:

Titan is not a brand new IP, but a spin off based on one of the existing franchises (not Warcraft though). On HardForum (see next section for clarifiction) he actually mentions a "World of Diablo-like ... spin off", but this seems to be just his opinion and not something based on direct info. I think it's worth keeping in mind that BlackThorne resembles in a way the Diablo universe, so this might be an option too.

Besides the PC version, which Rob Pardo confirmed during Blizzcon 2011 to be the main focus of the team, Titan is also being prepared for a launch on the next-gen version of the XBOX console. Here's another quote from Noid suggesting this.

Also, what I'm getting at in a stealth manner is that the team working on Titan at Blizzard, the successor, the next MMORPG after WoW is now working on writing framework for the next Xbox in addition to PC. The only other thing I was told was that the SDK for the next Xbox is the best SDK they have ever worked with.

No, incorrect. Starcraft 2 was delayed because they're reworking the code since they decided to remove LAN play. My coworker lives with one of the programmers at Blizzard, so this is legit info. Blizzard operates like a factory, step 1 in game development is the programmers coming in to build to groundwork for the game. When they're done, artists, level designers etc.. come in next, and then those programmers are moved to the next project.

In Starcraft 2's case, programmers were pulled from 'other' projects to come back to Starcraft 2 to rework the network design. Its coming Q1 2010.

Why do we trust alphaNoid?(All credit for finding this info goes to Rhaiden.)

I can't go into too much detail, but a guy on my team lives with a code monkey who's working on Project Titan at Blizzard. This is their rumored successor to WoW, and is located in the Diablo wing of the building, higher security locked doors. Think Willy Wonka level access. Nobody comes in, nobody comes out.

Anywho, apparently the majority of the underlaying 'code' for Diablo 3 has been done for quite some time. Blizzard runs development like a factory line, where programmers hop from project to project as soon as that portion is done. Apparently the design team is now working on Diablo 3, where many of the Diablo 3 programmers have moved into the Project Titan area to begin working there. This means (or so I'm told) that the core work is done, Blizzard is layering in the other teams to finish the game.

My coworker told me about Starcraft 2 not having LAN over a year ago, and said the Diablo 3 decision was in place before the game began production. Blizzard is going to give you every excuse they can, but the bottom line is that the purposely left the feature out of the games to combat piracy and FORCE gamers to you know ... buy their game.

Also, expect subscription tiers for Battle.net over the next 5 years eventually leading to no free to play model in the far future.

My sources are nothing I can directly link, so don't believe them if you don't want to. It doesn't matter to me who cares, all I know is I haven't been led incorrectly yet. I've met, and shaken hands with the man.

This is now by far the first ever public mention of the "Project Titan" codename in relation to Blizzard's new MMO, coming way before the December 2010 product slate leak that clued us in. The post has not been later edited and has also been quoted at that time by others, so it's obvious that theNoid / alphaNoid does indeed have valid inside sources.

What we can't know is how accurate is the info he himself transmits to us. By analyzing some of his other remarks, mostly related to the people working on the framework of Titan, and comparing them with our known and quite trusty Timeline, we did find some inconsistencies. For example, at Blizzcon 2010 we've been told by Blizzard that there are around 50 people working on it, while he is mentioning <20 even during 2011. At Blizzcon 2011 there were 90, which surely must include artists too (especially considering they were recruiting many for this position) and we've got several teases that the game is playable, even if in a rough form.

All these might be caused by incomplete info received from his source combined with some of his own assumptions. I don't think any are clear and bad enough to disqualify him as a valid poster, hence why this article exists. We are trying to get in touch with him for more comments, and I'll update this article if anything new comes up.

Until then, let me know what you think! Also, huge props to everyone on the forums for not only finding this, but then helping me make sense of everything and getting all the verification done.

Maintain strong familiarity with the game’s art direction, and support it with your designs.

Provide artwork as needed to support team-wide project communication and vision.

As you can see, the text is pretty self-explanatory. An important part of this new job is creating material to promote the game. I'm going to make a small logic leap here and say that you don't start looking to fill in this type of job if you don't plan on putting it to good use sometime in the near future.How near? We can't really know, as I've yet to determine a pattern when it comes to the filling period of the jobs listed by Blizzard, but I'm guessing 2013 might be a safe bet. It's definitely a good sign of rel progress, if nothing else.

On a mostly unrelated note, more and more small hints and whispers point to Project Blackstone being related to Diablo 3. Even if there's nothing conclusive that supports this and the meaning of the name is still very much in the air, I think we should definitely stay clear of making any connections between the recent domain registration and this job add. Best chances are, they're completely unrelated.

Thanks to Fusible.com, we know that Blizzard has recently become the owner of ProjectBlackstone.com. The name does not currently resolve to an actual webpage, but that's to be expected. This type of action from the company is not new, having registered WarcraftBattles.com just over a month ago and opened a dispute for HeroesofWarcraft.com on November 20th.

What makes this move stand out is that nobody can strongly tie it to any of their current franchises, which of course makes it a great candidate for being related to Titan. We might be witnessing the first sighting of the game's real name, but before we jump to such conclusions, let's see what our other options are:

One of the most popular theories is that it relates to Diablo 3 and that it might be the name of its next expansion. This is because The Black Soulstone is a critical lore item in the original D3 and it will probably play an important role in the next expansion, considering how the story ended. The problem with this theory is the obvious lack of "soul" in the domain name and also the addition of the word "project", which is far from being an appropriate term inside the Diablo universe. Even so, this is the most probable theory right now.

I've also seen many people jump and tie this domain name to a resurrection of the BlackThorne universe. Unfortunately, there is no real indication of this anywhere and the only arguments for this theory are that both names have the word "black" in them and that there is indeed a dark stone mentioned in Blackthorne's story. Not exactly much to go on...

Next in line, we have the Warcraft universe. (Un)fortunately, the mention of "blackstone" in it can be counted on the fingers from one hand and they're all minor occurrences, that don't really justify a new expansion being named after them: Blackstone Ring, Blackstone Span, Tharek Blackstone, Black Stone. It can of course be something completely new, but again, the word "project" makes this domain kind of incompatible with a fantasy universe like Warcraft.

The 2 remaining games, Starcraft and All-Stars present no visible ties with this domain name. Even more, we already know the name of Starcraft's future expansions, so it's pretty safe to erase it from the list.

The single remaining possibility, besides the one we're all here for, is that this new domain is related to something still under wraps, but not Titan. It would be pretty weird though if that were the case. Unless it's a smaller project, like an app or a new B.NET feature, I don't see why Blizzard would start to prepare for it before it makes everything ready for Titan, which should be in a more advanced state. I mean, Titan is already mentioned during the Conference Calls as an upcoming franchise, while there are no mentions of anything else new.

And so, we arrive at the option we're all thinking of. Could Titan's real name be Project Blackstone? This would certainly not be a codename, I mean, how many codenames does a game need and also, why register a domain for something that's supposed to be used internally? So if Project Blackstone is connected to Titan, it probably is its real name or atleast part of it.

I don't think we should really start speculating on this just yet, as it can turn out to be anything (or nothing), but I can't help notice that the inclusion of the word "project" in this domain name does support what we suspect of Titan, namely that it will take place in the present or near-future.

Other random notes:

Blackstone is a very popular trademark. No less than 12 trademarks with this exact name exist currently in the US. While they're all from different domains than video games, I can imagine that it's a crowded neighborhood already and Blizzard might want to avoid that. So this might be an additional reason for the inclusion of "project" in the name.

Interested to see how http://www.theblackstoneproject.com/ will be affected by this. If Blizzard is serious about the name, they'll probably get in touch and work something out and we might see a change there soon.

Update. As fellow TF member JohnD points out, the Blackstone name can also be found inside the Warhammer 40k universe, specifically inside the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook, written by ex-Blizzard Creative Director and Starcraft 2 lead, Andy Chambers. The Blackstone Fortress is a massive ship of unknown origin, able to destroy entire planets.

Let me know what you guys think. Maybe you have any new clues? I'm still investigating this and will update the article if anything new shows up.

Titan? What's that? (laughs) It's still moving along. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up that it is around the corner or anything, it is a very big project, it has a long way to go. I don't really know when we are going to start releasing more information. We are definitely in the middle of development at this point. The team is over 100 people now.

Q: I heard a rumor that you have been developing it for six years now, is that correct?

I'd have to think about that one. I guess it depends on how you look at such things, because when we first started the team, we started really small. We start with a couple of people and talk about the concept and draw some concept art. It definitely has not been in core development for that long. I'd say core development was closer to four years, but even that was with a smaller team.

Comments

A bit of a bummer really. The general form of his two answers suggests that a 2012 or early 2013 announcement is pretty much off the table. It has even made me have some doubts about a Blizzcon 2013 reveal, although I am still hopeful and somewhat confident that we'll get something juicy then.

On the bright side, it's good to hear that the team working on it has grown (although not by much) and that they have indeed entered full blown development, as predicted at last year's Blizzcon.

In four years of actual development other companies would not only launch the game but would already have a sequel close to being done. Blizzard is not such company and even if it can sometimes be a bit frustrating (the Diablo 3 wait, now this one, for Titan), I'm sure we can all agree that this is how great games are made and Blizzard has a history to prove it. So I guess we just have to hang tight and hope it won't be too much longer.

It's becoming quite clear that Titan is a huge project, even for a company with tremendous resources and experience, so in the end the wait will probably be completely worth it.

]]>Thu, 27 Sep 2012 09:22:01 +00002a79ea27c279e471f4d180b08d62b00aAnother former Blizzard employee talks, gives hints on when Titan will be announcedhttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/another-former-blizzard-employee-talks-gives-hints-on-when-titan-will-be-announced-r54
Same as last time, another ex-Blizzard team member (although it's worth taking note that verification in this case is virtually non-existant) started a thread in which he responds to questions from other posters. This time not on reddit, but on GameFAQs.com

He already gave some very interesting answers and the thread is still active. Here's what we have so far:

Q:If you've been able to see it, how's the next-gen MMO 'Titan' coming along?

A:Titan is looking very nice. If you have been around Blizzard games for a while you are going to be in for something as it is almost a complete departure from you would be used to. But in a good way, IE Burtons Batman to Nolans Batman.

Q: Does Titan have guns?

A: Yes.....and no. Haha, it will make sense. But yes.

Q: Will we see game-play or atleast a trailer for Titan by the end of the year?

A: No, not unless something big, read: bad, happens and they need to quickly try to divert attention.Otherwise it will be early next year after MoP dies down.

I'll update this article with any other answers he will give.

Again, please take note that there is no verification in place on those forums and the thread creator did not provide any proof to support his identity, so we shouldn't jump to any conclusions.

Last but not least, big thanks to Odysseus for originally pointing me towards this thread.]]>Tue, 21 Aug 2012 19:42:44 +00001d7f7abc18fcb43975065399b0d1e48ehttp://titanfocus.info/_/news/two-factors-that-might-influence-titans-timeline-wows-state-vivendis-plans-r52
August 4 - Vivendi Reportedly Back Off Plans To Sell Activision Stake

Funnily enough, the development process is quite often not the deciding factor for when exactly a game will be launched or marketed. In fact, pretty much every launch date in the gaming industry is decided mostly on other considerations, like competition moves, aiming periods which usually have high sales (Christmas), the collision with other internal projects, the need to start getting back all the investment, etc.

Of course the general timeline is being constructed on how the development is going, but after all the other factors are counted in, launches can move up or down by entire months. The announcement date for a project that is still years away from release is even more flexible. With this in mind, let's see some of the other, non-development factors that might influence the exact dates for Titan's announcement and launch. One of them I had in mind for quite a while, the other has just appeared on the horizon.

WoW's state.

Blizzard is not a company that needs to launch games fast in order to quickly recover its investment in them. That's why I'm thinking there is no strict deadline for Titan. Sure, there is a set date, there has to be, but my guess is that nobody inside the team that's working at the game really feels pressured to respect it. Titan needs to be absolutely great, it doesn't necessarily need to arrive on time.

This is even more true if we consider that Blizzard already has an incredibly successful MMO active a.k.a. World of Warcraft. Titan's arrival will surely be the biggest hit WoW has ever taken and will probably ever take. It's something that I'm sure Blizzard is wary of and that period will be extremely risky for the company. Worst case scenario is that WoW will suffer a shock, with many people leaving it for Titan, but then leaving Titan too because they won't like it and thus probably leaving Blizzard all together, flocking to whatever other game will be popular at that time.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush is an incredibly smart saying. Blizzard has WoW in its hands and it's a darn good "bird". The smart thing to do would be to not let it go too soon.

Ok, so to jump to the actual point, I can't help wonder if WoW's subscriptions state does not directly influence the timing of Titan's announcement and launch. What if, the better WoW is doing, the less pressure there is on the Titan team to meet all the deadlines and on the marketing team to make the game public? The opposite is also true, of course. I've said it before, if the subs would start to go down in a meaningful way, we'd see Titan pushed through the door quite fast. Not necessarily launched faster, but at least announced earlier, to keep people interested and positive. Investors too!

Maybe this is one of the reasons why the development pace for Titan was really slow in the first years (2007 - 2010). WoW was booming, even above Blizzard's expectations, so investing a lot of man power and resources in a new MMO didn't make much sense. They were probably content with knowing they have something new planned and with starting some really basic development, but that's about it.

WoW has successfully navigated through 2011's obstacles and MoP is looking good, but more than ever, it's incredibly hard to predict how well will the giant do in 2012 and in the coming years. As long as it remains stable, I think Titan's timeline might be prone to a few "delays", while in case its numbers start taking a real hit, we might get Titan info sooner than Blizzard initially projected.

This is why, in an article posted on Seeking Alpha, a financial analyst by the name of Jeff Borack suggests that if this sale goes through, Blizzard might be hard-pressed to officially announce Titan, in order to introduce a positive factor in the company's future. With Diablo launched and MoP soon out the door, there aren't many things coming up that can keep investors positive and interested. Titan is of course a huge attraction, but with no official announcement being made yet, there is no way for anyone to see in what state of development the game is and what kind of revenue models will be used.

Even more, according to the analyst, if Vivendi were to sell Activision Blizzard, it would be stupid of them not to include Titan in the price calculation. As he puts it, "A press release and a simple website could net Vivendi hundreds of millions in its sale of ATVI, a no-brainer move."

All in all, this guy has a point. Thing is, it all depends on Vivendi and its plans, and right now there are only rumors of people considering a sale. It's not much, but there rarely is smoke without a fire. It also connects a bit with my previous point. If WoW subs start going down, even with just rumors of a sale happening, Blizzard might need to introduce Titan into the picture, to show that the company's future still is bright and secure.

Update:Bloomberg reports that Vivendi has indeed decided to sell its stake in Activision Blizzard, according to a "person with knowledge of the situation".

I want to end this article with a bit of info about how all these companies relate to each other, as I've seen A LOT of confusion about this. Especially the forever popular and deeply wrong saying that Activision owns Blizzard. I'm not an expert on this kind of stuff so I might not be 100% correct, but it's the most accurate info I could find:

Vivendi has owned Blizzard since 1998. More exactly, Blizzard has been part of the Vivendi Games group, together with other companies like for example Sierra.

In 2008, Vivendi bought Activision and merged it with Vivendi Games. All of Vivendi Games's studios were absorbed by Activision (Vivendi Games no longer exists), with the exception of Blizzard Entertainment, which retained its autonomy and corporate leadership. Thus, the resulting company was named Activision Blizzard.

So Activision and Blizzard remained separate companies, both of which are owned by Activision Blizzard, which is owned by Vivendi.

The Chairman of Vivendi Games, René Penisson, became the Chairman of Activision Blizzard (he has been replaced meanwhile with Jean-Bernard Levy).

Bobby Kotick, the head of Activision, became the CEO of Activision Blizzard.

Now you know, so please feel free to apply a swift round-house kick OF KNOWLEDGE to those you see yelling that Activision is running or ruining Blizzard.

I was starting to get a bit worried in the last few weeks, as there hadn't been a new job posting since around the end of April. This inactivity does not necessarily mean anything, as there are plenty other sources of recruiting, such as in-house staff transfers or direct negotiating, but nonetheless it's not something good either.

Well, things are back in gear again (although a very low one), as just several days ago a new position has been added, that of Design Department Manager. I don't have any meaningful thoughts concerning it, except that it's good to know that there is actually a design team that needs managed. If you guys have something to add, leave it in the comments and I'll update the article.

Jason Hayes makes a comeback

Huge thanks to the anonymous visitor that sent me this tip through the contact form. I really appreciate it. And you guys will too!

According to a forum thread started by JH himself, he has returned to Blizzard, after working for quite a few years at Carbine Studios, on their recently announced Wildstar MMO and then at Valve, on DOTA2. Who is Jason Hayes I hear some of you asking? Well, let's check his (a bit out-dated) bio:

A multiple award-winning composer, Jason Hayes is best known for his long-standing relationship with Blizzard Entertainment. You can hear his music in all of Blizzard's recent games set in the popular worlds of StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft. Most recently, he was the lead composer on World of WarCraft. Among other contributions, his specialty has been to write the musical score for the widely acclaimed short animated movies produced by the Blizzard Film Department. In this context, he's won the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) award for “Best Cinematic / Cut-scene Audio” two years in a row.

Quite impressive, especially if we also take into consideration his most recent projects, Wildstar and DOTA2. But don't take words as proof, stay a while and listen to a few samples, taken from his website:

Warcraft III - A Call To Arms

http://www.musicbyjason.com/mp3files/A_Call_To_Arms.mp3

World of Warcraft - Legends

http://www.musicbyjason.com/mp3files/Legends.mp3

As you can see from his short forum message, he does not state where exactly he'll fit in at Blizzard and what game he'll be working on, but considering the state of Blizzard's current in-development projects, Titan seems like a good bet! And as my anonymous tipster suggested, if he'd be working on a known Blizzard game, like WoW, Diablo or Starcraft, he'd probably mention this straight away.

The reason I've sat on this news for a few days, besides the fact that I was extremely busy, was because I was hoping to get more info out of this announcement, before letting him know we're on to him. Evil, I know. Unfortunately, his most recent login is the one in which he made the announcement and I couldn't find more info from other sources (LinkedIn, Twitter etc).

You can be sure I'll update this article if there will be any new developments.